In Short, Marky Mark Finds An Attention-grabber

Marky Makes His Mark, Caught With Pants Down

April 08, 1992|By ROGER CATLIN; Courant Rock Critic

If he were a businessman instead of a muscle-bound street kid from Boston, you'd think Marky Mark had a marketing plan behind his current success.

Life has not been easy for white rappers since the meltdown of Vanilla Ice, who went from No. 1 album to "Circus of the Stars" in less than a year. And having a brother in New Kids on the Block who produced Marky Mark's debut album was another barricade to street credibility.

Yet Marky Mark Wahlberg's resume has the enviable entry of having been in New Kids in its earliest incarnation, and being hip enough to quit.

Musically, Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch have stayed afloat by using a strong soul singer, Loletta Holoway, in their first single, "Good Vibrations," and tried and true samples in subsequent hits. "Wildside" borrowed Lou Reed's "Walk on the Wild Side" sample previously used by A Tribe Called Quest (on "Can I Kick It?") and "I Need Money" used part of the O'Jays' "For the Love of Money," which everybody seemed to use last year, including Queen Latifah on the "New Jack City" soundtrack.

But the key to Marky Mark's lasting appeal (one is tempted to say career elasticity) might be his penchant for showing his jockey shorts.

Let other rappers talk about dropping the beat; Marky's made his mark by dropping his pants to reveal his skivvies -- in videos, on stage or on a bet during an MTV basketball game.

It's only the latest and least-subtle development in popular entertainment since the days when Elvis Presley wagged his pelvis on national TV.

Certainly it's not the first time in pop music that underwear has been brought to the forefront by our esteemed entertainers. Madonna has practically made a career out of lounging around in lingerie; from the first time she rolled around the MTV Video Awards Show in bustier and BOY TOY belt to her subsequent squadron of aerodynamically designed brassieres that she even made her male dancers wear on her last tour.

Wearing boxers high and jeans low is a hip hop trend that

allows your pals to see the colorful fabric you paid $12 for under the trousers. Luther Campbell, back when he was known as Luke Skyywalker, showed this style to the extreme on the cover of the 2 Live Crew "Banned in the U.S.A." album; but at the time, the album lyrics were more of an issue.

Just as rappers continue to steal the '70s funk sounds of George Clinton's Parliament/Funkadelic bands, so perhaps are they stealing his fashion ideas.

Bootsy Collins, bassist for Clinton, made his name with a star-shaped guitar and huge oversized diapers he'd wear on stage -- a fashion idea he might have borrowed from the cartoon character Baby Huey, the only other figure in popular culture to wear a bigger pair of diapers as part of everyday stage dress.

Prince, who has worn a few eye-opening costumes himself, organized a females-in-lingerie trio called Vanity 6 in the early '80s, which briefly started a subgenre in contemporary soul. A second underwear trio was embodied by Rick James' Mary Jane Girls.

For those who like to overplay their messages, crotch-grabbing has enjoyed a concurrent rise in on-stage activity. Rappers do it; Madonna has done it with her underwearlike clothing; Michael Jackson continues to build his career around it.

Jackson, for his part, has stayed away from wearing underwear as outerwear, although his successful sister Janet has, in her most recent video, doffed her beloved black sweats for some peek-a-boo action. Less successful Jackson sister LaToya, on the other hand, has gone to underwear and beyond in her desperate attempts at stardom.

Marky Mark has bettered all of the above B.V.D.-bearers, however, by not only nonchalantly wearing them on stage but actually going through the striptease by dropping his drawers to show the unfashionable white jockeys.

As such, he made a perfect model for the leering lens of fashion and glamor-boy photographer Bruce Weber, who captured Marky Mark in all his Fruit of the Loom glory in last month's Interview magazine.

There, the combination of crotch-grabbing and underwear-wearing came quite close to soft porn. Jim Morrison was arrested for doing something very close to that in a 1968 Miami concert.

In the 1971 Woody Allen movie, "Bananas," one of the edicts of a revolutionary turned dictator is that everyone wear their underwear on the outside of their clothing.

In such a world, Marky Mark would certainly be minister of music.

Marky Mark and the Funky Bunch perform 7 p.m. tonight at the Palace Performing Arts Center, 246 College St., New Haven. Tickets are $15.50, $16.50 and $25. For more information, call 789-2120